On the other hand, we have the absurdity where the two needless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a Harvard University study, have a projected final bill to hit $4 trillion to $6 trillion in the coming decades.Yet the latest headlines are that Obama is too timid and not getting us involved in new foreign ventures. Who do you believe in Washington? This probably explains some of it:

43 comments:

It became clear at the hearing that most of the other VSOs attending appear to be more interested in defending the status quo within VA, protecting their relationships within the agency, and securing their access to the Secretary and his inner circle… I believe the national and local commanders of every VSO have the interests of their members at heart, and take seriously their commitment to their members and their organization. Unfortunately, I no longer believe that to be the case within the Washington executive staff of the VSOs that testified. Last week’s hearing made it clear to me that the staff has ignored the constant VA problems expressed by their members and is more interested in their own livelihoods and Washington connections than they are to the needs of their own members....Burr’s letter triggered some tough responses from those he targeted.

“This is clearly one of the most dishonorable and grossly inappropriate acts that we’ve witnessed in more than forty years of involvement with the veteran community and breaches the standards of the United States Senate,” said the VFW’s William Thien, commander-in-chief, and John Hamilton, adjutant general, in a statement.

“Although Senator Burr attended much of that hearing, apparently all he wanted to hear were calls for the VA Secretary to resign,” Joseph Johnston of the Disabled American Veterans said. “Senator Burr may be enamored with the idea that all of VA’s problems and challenges can be overcome by replacing one Secretary, but the plain facts and simple logic indicate otherwise.”

But he didn’t attend the entire hearing, as Paralyzed Veterans President Bill Lawson and Executive Director Homer Townsend, Jr., noted in a letter: “Perhaps you should have shared with all veterans in your `open’ letter that you cared so much about their health care that you were not actually present during the testimony that the VSO representatives provided and you did not ask a single question to gauge our recommendations about how to fix the problems the VA health care system is facing.”

Robert Welch favored a foreign policy of “Fortress America" rather than "entangling alliances" through NATO and the UN. For this reason, Welch combined a strong anti-Communism with opposition to the bipartisan Cold War consensus of armed internationalism. undoubtedly, he would have opposed our adventures in Iraq, Kosovo, Libya, Syria and anything in the former Soviet territories in Ukraine.

The White House blew the cover of the top CIA agent in Afghanistan on Sunday, when the person’s name was included on a list given to reporters during a visit to the country by President Barack Obama.

The name was then emailed by the White House press office to a distribution list of more than 6,000 recipients, mostly members of the US media.

The agent in question, listed as chief of station, would be a top manager of CIA activity in Afghanistan, including intelligence collection and a drone-warfare programme under which unmanned aerial vehicles mount cross-border attacks into Pakistan.

The name appeared on a list of attendees requested by White House officials for the president’s visit to Bagram air base to mark Memorial Day, the national day of tribute to fallen service members. The list of 15 people was drawn up by the military, written into a routine press report and sent to Washington. The Obama press office then sent the list, unredacted, to the larger group.

The mistake did not come to light until the reporter who had filed from Afghanistan, the veteran Washington Post correspondent Scott Wilson, looked more closely at what he had sent and noticed the name and title.

“I drew it to their attention before they had noticed what had happened,” Wilson said on Monday, hours after returning from the 33-hour trip overseas.

“I asked the press official that was with us on the trip if they knew that the station chief had been identified in the list. That person said that they did not know that, but that because the list was provided by military, they assumed it was OK. By this time the list was out.

“Soon after, I think that they talked to their bosses, and realised that it was not OK. And they tried to figure out what to do about this, if there was a way to kind of un-ring the bell.”

Ukraine's president-elect, Petro Poroshenko, promised to end the armed insurgency in the east of the country in "hours", as Kiev's forces launched air strikes on separatists during an intense battle to regain control of Donetsk airport which left many injured.

With almost all the votes counted on Monday evening, Poroshenko, a pro-west businessman, was on course for a decisive victory with 54% of the vote, while his nearest challenger won just 13%, but when he takes up office he will be faced with the immediate task of bringing calm to Ukraine's eastern regions.

The pro-Russia forces who have occupied government buildings in eastern Ukraine said they were ready to negotiate with Ukraine's new leadership, but only with Russian mediation and on equal terms. The separatists have declared themselves de facto independent states and claim Kiev has no jurisdiction over them.

Less than a fifth of polling stations opened in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Sunday following a massive campaign of intimidation by the separatists, who say they want the eastern regions of Ukraine to join Russia after questionable referendums earlier this month.

But as the majority of Russian troops have now moved away from the border with Ukraine, the prospect of a Russian invasion or a Crimea-style annexation of the territory is unlikely.

I stated at the time, that Bush should have dragged the Saudi Ambassador into the White House and let him know that they owed us $500 billion in reparations. Period.

I also stated he should have matched and checked the iconic felling of two towers with two mushroom clouds rising on each Afghan training camp. Period.

Instead we have this amazing account to the crass stupidity of Bush and his Neocon flag waivers:

When a suicide bomber detonated an explosive beside the vehicle in which Army Master Sgt. Todd Nelson was riding through Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2007, shrapnel struck his right side, and fire engulfed him.

Nearby troops pulled Nelson from the flaming wreckage of the Land Cruiser, and American medics and surgeons at the nearest base did what they could to stabilize him.

Nelson had a fractured skull and crushed facial bones. His nose, right eye and ear were gone. Burns covered more than 18 percent of his body. He was unconscious for six weeks; only a heartbeat showed he was alive.

Now 40, he’s sure the U.S. medical evacuation teams that flew him swiftly to Germany and on to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio saved his life several times en route.

That Nelson didn’t die from his grievous wounds is testament to the military medical advances that have given U.S. troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan a remarkable 90 percent chance of survival.

Telling his story to a roomful of science reporters last month, Nelson recalled waking up in the hospital and looking at himself in the mirror for the first time, thinking “‘I guess I can live with that.’ Because I felt fortunate to be alive.”

Nelson is just one of more than 50,000 American troops who have suffered combat wounds in Afghanistan and Iraq.

No, I don’t respect bullshit political holidays. No more than I respect incompetent politicians like Lyndon Johnson and Anal Abraham Lincoln that caused the carnage and owns this:

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the men and women who died while serving in the country's armed forces.[1] The holiday, which is celebrated every year on the last Monday of May,[2] was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the war.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.